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by excogs



Series: Gears Roevember 2020 [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: CW: Eating and Drinking, F/F, Female Roegadyn (Final Fantasy XIV), First Meetings, Fluff, it took me five days to perfect the craft of writing to Eynli's horrible wonderful Lominsan accent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27475540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/excogs/pseuds/excogs
Summary: A moment’s stunned silence and Shining came to her senses. She picked her head up, steadied her feet, and made ready to offer a fervent apology to whoever it was that she’d angered. A Roegadyn woman, by the look of it. A sea wolf, even, and Lominsan, if her dialect had anything to say about it (and given her verbosity, Shining believed it did). She was on the short side but strong in stance, with flowing silver hair falling in waterfall waves from under a feathered cap and crystal blue eyes that reflected the glow of the aetheryte gently humming above them, her decidedly soft-looking plum lips pursed with highly vocal discontent…Oh, Gods, she’s gorgeous.And she’s /furious./--Shining Dusk and Eynliswys Swygeyhawyn visit Shining's home, Idyllshire, recall the spectacle of their first meeting, and have dinner with a dear friend.
Relationships: Eynliswys Swygeyhawyn/Shining Dusk, Roegadyn Characters (Final Fantasy XIV)/Original Character(s)
Series: Gears Roevember 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995394
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





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**Author's Note:**

> For the Cactuar Femroe Linkshell's Roevember day 4 prompt, "Your Favorite Place." This one ended up being far, far longer than I expected, so I tried to give it the time and polish it deserved. Really, it's three vignettes dumped into one fic, and I'm not going to pretend I masterfully tied them together or performed anything even close. Featuring not one but TWO very special Femroe cameos - thank you to a certain Fizzlebeef for lending me everyone's favorite Roe pugilist with a backstory in Idyllshire!

As the sharp, rhythmic sounds of chocobo talons meeting stone tile carry Shining Dusk towards the Epilogue Gate to Idyllshire, clacking and kweh-ing rising above both the far-off rumble of the Thaliak river falls and the close-by buzz of the local, rather aggressive, wildlife mulling about in the grass aside the curling pathway, she couldn’t help the warbling feeling in her chest rising up to a sniffling, eye-wetting whimper. She squeezes her fellow passenger’s hand tightly, a slightly smaller but rougher hand set comfortably across both of their laps.

“Gods, Eynli…” She squeaks out, the words barely finding their way out in the river-rapid surge of emotions working their way through the Hellsguard. Shining lets her head drop onto Eynliswys’ shoulder, fully aware that she’ll have to ask forgiveness for getting her collar damp later.

“We’re truly here, huh? We’re home.” Shining hiccups. “I never thought I’d come back…”

Eynliswys works her free arm up Shining’s back, rubbing her companion gently before letting the arm come to rest wrapped around her lopped-over head and upturned shoulder. She pulls Shining in closer, squeezing her with the same loving tightness that Shining is pressing into her other hand. Looking out at the road ahead, then back at the woman flopped against her, Eynliswys laughs softly.

Eynliswys Swygeyhawyn was never one for leaving soft moments unmarred. “Ye sure’n’s it’s just them irritations what wit’ th’ local flora o’ th’ ‘Interlands? I’m startin’ to wonder if ye ain’t all puffy-eyed for some other reason!”

She smiles mischievously, nuzzling the side of her face against Shining’s head, laughing with warmth and deep self-satisfaction. Shining sniffles, hiccups again, and momentarily falls silent before a weak laugh cuts through her melodrama, cut up by her crying but not short on enthusiasm.

“Sh-shut it!” Shining pulls her head out of the crook of Eynliswys’ shoulder, taking a moment to playfully glare at her before returning her head with just enough force to drive her point home. Eynliswys reels slightly, letting go of Shining for long enough to grab the seatback for stability, but Shining’s stunt only serves to make her laugh harder, a gritty, roaring, laugh, a picking up Shining’s hand and rapping it against her leg laugh, full of love and carefully crafted to hide all of the similarly melodramatic emotions she, too, was feeling, as the carriage neared their shared return to Idyllshire.

\--

One of a handful of Sharlayan scholars who’d been sent back to Eorzea after the Exodus to see to leftover affairs only to find their abandoned city having been taken up as a haven for goblins and treasure hunters, Shining Dusk had been lost in thought as she lazily strolled past the Idyllshire aetheryte. The new arrangement once gave Shining pause, given her nostalgia for the foregone days of the colony where she’d been raised, but she quickly grew to love her position as a gobbiestop cityfriend.

She’d taken up, or, really, been thrust into a job as Idyllshire’s unofficial appraiser, shedding light on the purpose and origins of the Sharlayan artifacts treasure hunters would dig up across the Hinterlands and the tomes they’d manage to retrieve from the safer sections of the Great Gubal Library. Her mind had been occupied by a rather strange relic she’d been assessing when she bumped into a passing stranger, cleanly sending herself stumbling backwards.

“Oi, gilded fancy swivin’ robe-type! Keep yer eyes where yer bloody walkin’, ye ‘ear?” a voice disquietingly close to Shining’s ear shouted. “Near had me knocked into ‘at moat o’ green gobshite o’ unknown-like origins, an’ I ain’t got the damned time wha’ wit’ to get back in the bloody bath!”

A moment’s stunned silence and Shining came to her senses. She picked her head up, steadied her feet, and made ready to offer a fervent apology to whoever it was that she’d angered. A Roegadyn woman, by the look of it. A sea wolf, even, and Lominsan, if her dialect had anything to say about it (and given her verbosity, Shining believed it did). She was on the short side but strong in stance, with flowing silver hair falling in waterfall waves from under a feathered cap and crystal blue eyes that reflected the glow of the aetheryte gently humming above them, her decidedly soft-looking plum lips pursed with highly vocal discontent…

Oh, Gods, she’s gorgeous.

And she’s  _ furious. _

The carefully-crafted apology half-formed in her head cast aside in her moment of distraction, Shining could do little but stammer. “I-I-I’m sorry, miss, i-it won’t happen again! I-”

“It better not, ye spine-glue-smellin’ scholar-like shite!” The woman shouted back. Shining took a moment to note that her flailing arms were both exceptionally muscular and most certainly uncovered on purpose.

Shining was fairly sure she didn’t smell like books. After all, she’d spent her day at a goldsmith’s magnifier, the only papers in sight being her personal notes. Frowning, she took a deep breath and attempted to calm the situation down.

“You’re… An adventurer, aren’t you? Treasure hunter?” It was the best guess she had by the muscular build, far-flung accent, and combative attitude, in any case. “I run the Appraisery on the North end, I’d gladly offer a lower rate on your next find if that’d make up for my misstep?”

The plaster-pale woman scoffed. “A bloody ‘venturer?! Pah! As if I’ ‘ave the free hours to while away gettin’ lost and failin’ jobs what wit’ Stickqix breathin’ down me Gods-forsaken neck o’er ‘is next batch o’ alchemical nonsense!”

Shining’s face twisted into a look of confusion. She worked at the Bangpots? That was the last occupation she’d expect given this girl’s demeanor (and, arguably more importantly, lack of proper alchemical work safety equipment and the Bangpots’ signature goblin respirator).

So she’s smart, too.  _ Twelve forfend. _

“You… Work under Stickqix? M-my apologies, miss…?” Shining trails off, gesturing towards the stranger to introduce herself.

“Eynliswys Swygeyhawyn to ye!” The Sea Wolf pridefully crossed her arms.

“Well, miss Swygeyhawyn, if the Appraisery can do anything for Stickqix’s research by way of an apology for your time,” Shining offers, “I’d be more than happy to-”

“Eh, shove it, alright?” Eynliswys interrupts. “I’on’t need Gods-all from you. Jus’ watch where yer walkin’, savvy?”

Shining Dusk smiled. Her moment had been laid out for her, and she intended to seize it with all her might. She clasped her hands together, hoping for a sort of gentle, innocent appearance, yet also to mask the slight shake in her fingertips as she put her neck on the line. She still wasn’t entirely sure whether Rosemary had taken the metaphor about fighting in her request for advice on seeking romance a bit too literally when her suggestion had been to “strike quickly and decisively,” but regardless, it was time to put theory to the test. Be it a special guest lecture, a rare artifact, or the chance to ask a hot stranger on a date, after all, Shining Dusk is not one to let an opportunity pass be.

“That’s alright, then. Could I buy you a meal instead? After you’re done with Stickqix’s business for the day, of course, I wouldn’t want to rush you.”

Eynliswys froze in place, the jaw once rigid with anger now slack with surprise. Her snow-white skin quickly took on just a hint of pink.

“‘Scuse-?” The once surpassingly confident Roegadyn stammered. “Ye’re jus’ gonna dive righ’ bloody in ‘n-...”

“Is that a no, then?” The edges of Shining’s lips curled knowingly. This one did have a soft side after all, it seemed. “A shame. My schedule is rather open tonight.”

“I-... Ay, sure. None’r t’say Eynliswys Swygeyhawyn went’n passed on a free meal, ‘fter all.”

With certainty typically reserved for the final quill-stroke of a logical proof, Shining Dusk knew that Eynliswys Swygeyhawyn wanted more than the free meal.

\--

Eynliswys slams her mug of arkhi onto its coaster, sending a splash of the clear liquid into the air before it collapses down to earth near the steaming basket of buuz in the middle of the table. The sun was setting over Idyllshire now, and Eynliswys and Shining had dinner plans with an old local friend. “‘N thens’ I said, well how’s d’ye think I got t’ Idyllshire, I bloody fought me way ‘ere! No fire-spittin’ lizard could send Eynliswys Swygeyhawn packin’!”

A round of laughter erupts at the table. Shining picks up her head off of Eynli’s shoulder and tosses it back. Across from the pair, one Midnight Dew laughs just as enthusiastically, but points a chastising finger at the boisterous Sea Wolf. “Watch your slammin’, please, Eynli? If you go n’ ruin our buuz I’ll tell the gategobbies not t’ let you lasses back in next time!”

Besides this table for three, it’s business as usual tonight at the Hard Place. A handful of treasure hunters while away the evening hours, Idyllshire’s esteemed landscape painter rests his brushing hand, and a steady stream of adventurers drop off supplies for establishment proprietor Adkiragh and local orphanage-runner Zhloe. Midnight stops between sentences to pick up a buuz - one of the  _ dry _ ones - and take a bite out of it.

“Well, Shine, what’d you say to that? Surely you didn’t buy this swindlin’ lass’ tall tale?”

“Not for a moment!” Shining insists. “I pressed her first thing, and wouldn’t you know it, she didn’t know the first damned thing about Dravania outside of what’s between the city and the Straight of Merlthor!”

“Now ‘ang on!” Eynliswys interrupts. “Jus’ if’n’s I ‘idn’t ‘ave t’ chance t’ try me might ‘on’t mean I couldn’ take ‘ome no scrap o’ dragon hide!”

“We all know the only thing you’d be taking home is bandages to nurse your dragonfire burns, dear,” Shining retorts. “How does that old saying go? ‘A jack of all trades, but master of none, we all know the dragon won?’”

Midnight, halfway into another bite of buuz, cackles, letting out a food-muffled “‘at’s the one!” Shining smirks at Eynliswys, who scowls and goes for another swig of arkhi.

The three Roegadyn stop to eat for a few minutes, during which time a Hyuran woman in a peculiar swine bodysuit stops by the table to refill their cups.

“I swear, Shine, nobody’s the knack for identifyin’ artifacts like you had, and the Bangpots just hasn’t been half as fun since Eynli left n’ took you with. We all saw it comin’, though. You two hit it off like Rowena n’ an easy profit, so it was no surprise when you up n’ shipped off to Vylbrand.” Midnight smirks. “But, really, this place just isn’t the same without you two Choco-haul queers around!”

Shining pouts. “It wasn’t like  _ that! _ We worked on the plan for two months -  _ two months! _ \- and it was only going to be a temporary arrangement ‘till I decided to stay!”

“Say what you like, lass. We all know you were talkin’ movin’ plans the first mornin’ after.”

“I-!” Shining sputters, her cheeks reddening to match her lips. Eynliswys, her yet again half-empty mug of arkhi pressed up against her mouth, yanks the mug away and rushes her free hand to cover her lips to stop herself from spitting out her drink, letting yet another arkhi spillway from the cup hit the table below in her haste.

Midnight just chuckles. “What I’m sayin’, lasses, is it’s good to see you again. Idyllshire’ll always wait for your next visit, yea? Even if you’ve got some fancy masthead apartment now, you two cityfriends have a home here forever. N’ I’m sure you’ll be back, seein’ as I never expected Shining Dusk to leave the colony in the first place!”

“It’s good to be back, truly,” says Shining. She gazes around the Hard Place wistfully. “If you’d asked me however many years ago where my favorite place was, I’d o’ course‘ve pointed you here, but now…”

Shining looks to Eynliswys, adoration in her eyes, and lays her head to rest on her shoulder.

“... Be it the colony, Limsa Lominsa, or the Seventh Hell itself, my favorite place is wherever Eynli is.”

“Are ye sayin’ I’ve been t’ or’ ‘m goin’ t’ Hell?!”

“Don’t ruin the moment, dear.”


End file.
